The foster care system was unprepared for the last drug epidemic-let’s not repeat history

Home/Blog/Opioid/The foster care system was unprepared for the last drug epidemic-let's not repeat history

A new article by leaders of the CHAMPS campaign — Ron Haskins, Jeremy Kohomban, and Jennifer Rodriguez — offers key insights about today’s opioid crisis and what needs to be done to avoid mistakes from prior drug epidemics.

“As long as the current trend continues, there will be continued pressure on child welfare systems to provide timely and appropriate services to children and families. Having more children in foster care will intensify what is already a problem in many states; namely, recruiting and retaining enough good foster homes for children who have been removed from their families. States should now be intensifying their efforts to find and train foster parents and to ensure state and county child welfare agencies have policies and practices that support foster parents, including kin, in providing quality parenting.”